Pandora leads tech stocks up; Facebook slips

Online radio firm jumps on outlook despite plans for CEO change

DanGallagher

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Tech stocks got a late-day boost to close mostly in positive territory on Friday, with Pandora Media leading the way with its shares jumping to a new 52-week high.

Reuters

Pandora Media shares surge on Friday following a positive forecast.

The Nasdaq Composite
COMP, -0.22%
was up 0.4% to 3,244 while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index
SOX, -1.21%
rose by a fraction and the Morgan Stanley High-Tech Index
US:MSH
stayed flat.

A strong uptick in the broad market helped, driving the Dow up 66 points by the close to a fresh all-time high.

Pandora Media shares
P, -8.63%
jumped more than 17% to close at $13.79 after the online radio firm issued a better-than-expected forecast for the current quarter. At least three brokers upgraded the stock following Thursday afternoon’s results. See: Pandora jumps on results; CEO to step down

“Quite simply, mobile mobilization represents the inflection point for the stock, in our view, as it also helps resolve worries about relatively high content costs,” wrote James Marsh of Piper Jaffray, who upgraded the stock to an overweight rating.

The stock also shrugged off the surprise news that Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy planned to step down from the top job, once a replacement is found.

Facebook
FB, +1.08%
was among the top decliners, falling about 2.2% after a strong gain the previous session that was propelled by changes the company announced for its news feed tool. A few analysts issued positive notes on the changes, citing their belief that it could improve Facebook’s advertising business. See: Facebook revamps ‘news feed’ design

Texas Instruments shares
TXN, -1.55%
closed with a mild gain after the chip maker raised the bottom end of its outlook range for the current quarter.

Finisar shares
FNSR, +1.10%
fell more than 8% after the optical equipment maker swung to a loss for the fiscal third quarter.

BlackBerry shares
US:BBRY
closed down 1.2%. Bloomberg News reported that the company is planning to launch its new Z10 smartphone in the U.S. on March 22. The report was based on unnamed sources; the company has not yet announced a U.S. launch date for the device.

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